What happened today
1900
Famous birthdays
1866
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on December 4
-
1992
US Pres. George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 troops to Somalia during the Somali Civil War.
-
1991
The last American hostages held in Lebanon are released.
-
1985
Robert McFarland resigns as National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter is named to succeed.
-
1981
President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States.
-
1959
Peking pardons Pu Yi, ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo.
-
1952
The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight.
-
1950
The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.
-
1949
Jeff Bridges, actor, producer; won Academy Award for Best Actor as Otis "Bad" Blake in Crazy Heart (2009).
-
1947
Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy.
-
1945
A. Scott Berg, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer (Lindberg, 1998).
-
1944
Chris Hillman, singer, songwrier, musician; performed with the bands The Byrds, The Hillmen, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Manassas.
-
1942
U.S. planes make the first raids on Naples, Italy.
-
1941
Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft.
-
1940
Gary Gilmore, American murderer who demanded his death sentence be carried out; he was the first prisoner executed in the US following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia.
-
1937
Max Baer Jr., actor, screenwriter, director, producer; best know for his role as Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies TV series